The Philadelphia Writers’ Conference was founded in 1949 as a non-profit organization “whose purpose is to bring writers together for instruction, counsel, fellowship, and the exchange of ideas.”
Original founders Florence Kerigan, Suzanne Gill, Helen VanDusen, And Walter Breish held the first “Philadelphia Regional Writers’ Conference” at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, featuring four workshops, a banquet, and an evening speaker. A conference was held in Philadelphia every year from that point forward until 2019. In 2020 we held our first virtual conference, and we’re looking ahead to holding a new annual conference in Philadelphia in the upcoming years.
The conference was officially incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1980. The PWC is organized by an all-volunteer board and is funded via conference fees and donations from supporters and board members.